Have I read the comments correctly? An abysmal lack of airmanship leads to a very close brush and it turns into a "why the US is so much smarter" thread! Given the number of runway excursions, landings on incorrect runways and airports that occur Stateside and cock ups many Americans make around the rest of the world and at home (ATC to visiting aircraft) due to sloppy RT, please explain why they are seen as the higher standard. As many said, 2000' isn't a FL anywhere, and even then it's irrelevant to the discussion. A clearance to FL200 cannot be interpreted as 2000' by anyone competent, so what the hell has this got to do with nationalities?